New Metro GDP Data Released

The Bureau of Economic Analysis yesterday released the 2009 data for metropolitan area GDP. Their headline, “Economic Decline Widespread in 2009,” should come as a surprise to no one.

The BEA focuses on the year on year change. I’d rather look at the full span of the data that’s available, which is now 2001-2009. Here’s a look at percent change in total real metro area GDP during that time period:

And here are the top ten metro areas over one million in population on this metric:


Row Metro 2001 2009 Pct Change
1 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 81,505 114,028 39.90%
2 Oklahoma City, OK 43,835 59,532 35.81%
3 Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, TX 55,466 75,136 35.46%
4 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 63,730 82,255 29.07%
5 Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL 71,940 91,400 27.05%
6 Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ 138,780 174,617 25.82%
7 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 294,656 368,793 25.16%
8 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 117,447 146,448 24.69%
9 Salt Lake City, UT 48,157 59,603 23.77%
10 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 126,875 155,850 22.84%

Per capita tells is a little bit different story. Here’s a map of US metro areas for percent change in real GDP per capita:

The stunning collapse in real per capita GDP and also the erosion in per capita personal income relative to the nation is one of the key reasons I see Atlanta as a region with far more troubles than is generally assumed.

Here are the top ten large metros again:


Row Metro 2001 2009 Pct Change
1 Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA 41,256 50,863 23.29%
2 Oklahoma City, OK 39,573 48,507 22.58%
3 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 67,299 79,604 18.28%
4 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA 44,252 51,035 15.33%
5 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA 63,260 72,259 14.23%
6 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA 46,147 52,158 13.03%
7 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV 59,801 67,344 12.61%
8 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 37,960 42,521 12.02%
9 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 31,160 34,472 10.63%
10 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 49,100 53,835 9.64%

All I can say is, this data looks great for Portland. That city isn’t perfect to be sure, but on the GDP side of the house, the plan is working beautifully. Contrary to slacker stereotypes, high value work is increasingly being produced there.

Aaron M. Renn is an independent writer on urban affairs based in the Midwest. His writings appear at The Urbanophile.